Not many see Balaton from this angle - photo gallery

Photo: Groszvald Attila

Sometimes there isn’t much time to plan the composition of a photo, for example when you’re lying on your tummy, secured in a safety harness at the back of a helicopter. This is exactly what Attila Groszvald does when he takes aerial photos of Lake Balaton, and he told us several times that it’s only a hobby, he’s not a professional photographer. While that may be true, most of us would be freaked out to spend even a second at the kind of height where he hangs out to snap photo series. He’s our next talented Balaton photographer.

Attila first got interested in photography 20 years ago, but his passion for flying dates back even further than that. He started parachuting at the age of 16, continuing to follow his thrilling hobby in the army as well. Unlike parachuting, he was never trained in taking photos, he is entirely self-taught

He managed to synch his two fields of interest. At first he only snapped pictures of parachute jumpers from the ground, but then someone suggested that he go up with them to capture the jumps from the air. He couldn’t say no

He’s taken pictures from airplanes, helicopters, hot-air balloons and gliders, and he often asks for a window or a door to be opened because he doesn’t like when the plexiglass or the windshield is visible in the photos

Sometimes he resorts to extreme measures: he lies down on his belly at the back of a helicopter, with only a safety harness and a single rope securing him to the vehicle, but he says so far he hasn’t been in a life-threatening situation as a photographer

His favorite thing about the whole experience is that he can see all the way from Balatonakarattya to Keszthely from up above